Enter CAIR

[F]or Islamists in America, charges of “profiling” and “inappropriate” methods are the preferred reply to critical discussion of almost all significant matters. Those who investigate Wahhabism are accused of “profiling” Saudis, even though numerous Saudi subjects hate and reject Wahhabism. Questioners about radicalism in Islam are alleged to “profile” all Muslims, notwithstanding the recognition and repudiation of extremism by millions of ordinary Muhammadan believers. According to the radicals, they themselves represent the Muslim mainstream, their practices and beliefs are harmless, and any questioning of them amounts to persecution.

CAIR is the Islamist group that wrote the book on the scenario Schwartz describes. It holds itself out as a civil rights organization representing Muslims in the United States, but it is in fact a front group serving the interests of Hamas and its friends among the offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Thus CAIR found itself named an unindicted co-conspirator in the government’s prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation, another Hamas front group. Among its primary goals are the thwarting of law enforcement activities to protect the United States from Islamist terrorism and the stigmatization of its critics as bigots. This is CAIR’s playbook.

We see the same playbook being employed against Katherine Kersten by the executive director of the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in the Twin Cities. After her first Star Tribune column exposing this public charter school as an essentially sectarian institution, TIZA principal, imam, and Muslim American Society of Minnesota officer Asad Zaman professed his concerns with “Kersten’s apparent bias against Muslims[.]”

Over the weekend the Star Tribune posted a story on the fallout from Kersten’s April 9 column on TIZA. Zaman accused Kersten of attacking him and the school on religious grounds. Referring to Kersten’s alleged bias against Muslims, Zaman asserted: “It is vile and unacceptable in any civilized society.” (The quote was subsequently removed from the article.) The article portrayed the school as a victim of threats inspired by Kersten’s column.

The Minnesota chapter of a national Islamic civil liberties group has asked the FBI and local law enforcement officers to investigate reported threats against a Twin Cities charter school as possible hate crimes, while a Jewish organization deplored the threats.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) made the request Monday after the director of Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights told police that he and the school had received threatening and harassing phone messages and e-mails.

The group is concerned about the safety of the school’s students, many of whom are Muslim, said CAIR chapter coordinator Chris Schumacher. Tagging the threats as possible hate crimes also makes it clear that prejudice could have prompted them, and “we wanted to bring that to light in case that wasn’t already obvious to people,” he said.

It is remarkable that CAIR found time to advance the cause of TIZA this week. It has otherwise been engaged working on behalf of convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist Sami al-Arian, who is being held in contempt of court for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury. The entrance of CAIR onto the scene in response to Kersten’s columns should set off bells indicating that Kersten has struck the mother lode.